A Jacksonville artist who has every reason to be bitter is choosing to be hopeful instead.
Jerome Videen, 37, suffers from not one, but three amputations and someone recently stole his tools from his garage.
Some of those tools have now been replaced and he is glad to get back to work.
“Rather than you know just stopping making things all together, I figured out how I could make something, you know the way I am now," Jerome Videen said.
Jerome Videen used to do construction but, for the last four years, he’s turned to smaller projects.
“I call myself the one handy maker because obviously I have one hand and I consider myself still pretty handy," he said.
An auto-immune disease attacked his kidneys at thirteen, resulting in two transplants by twenty. He now needs another.
Jerome Videen is left with only one hand after blood stopped flowing throughout his body four years ago. Ultimately, taking both his legs and his dominant right hand.
“I’m just trying to do what anybody does in life and that is be happy, do what makes me happy," he said.
The sounds and sawdust act as his meditation.
“Unfortunately, doctors missed how strong your soul is and your spirit and your will to live," Tonya Videen said.
Jerome Videen and his wife are urging anyone who is facing an obstacle to do one thing, try.
“If you don’t have dreams still then what are you striving for in life," Tonya Videen said.
“I just want to be part of encouraging other people to get into the hobby, whatever help I can be in that area, that’s what I want to do,” Jerome Videen said.